After a hugely successful Edinburgh Fringe run in 2019 – during which he received a nomination for Best Show and made it into Dave’s Top 10 list for Best Joke – Ivo’s spring tour of his show ‘The Game of Life’ was unfortunately canceled by At the same act, God harpoons like everyone else’s best plans, and after a happy year of rescheduling, crossing fingers, and hoping you’re doing okay in these troubled times, it’s back for a triumphant, and by no means rusty, finale.
The show hits The Lowry in Salford on March 17 this year.
One of the industry’s most engaging/unimaginative autobiographical comedians, Ivo’s previous shows have veered from singles to relationships to motion sickness, engagement and pregnancy in 2018, always accompanied by tangential narratives about politics, class and what Bahncard discounts he was currently on. The Game of Life celebrated both the birth of Ivo’s daughter and the equally iconic upgrade from (16-25) Young Person’s to (26-30) Millennial Railcard – a triumphant series of developments that have lost none of their vitality because the world has been on lockdown for a year, the baby is now in kindergarten and Ivo is only a few months away from traveling at full price without delay.
So where are we now? Presumably the same place as many other comics: the old bits that still make sense from the last show, the new bits that don’t fully give the game away for the next one, and the obligatory mentions of how stressful it all was and how you wear a mask having to sit up when you get up to go to the toilet. This is, more than ever, truly high-end faff from one of the most emotionally (in)articulate comics and prank victims in the game.
After five years of being groomed for more serious careers at Eton, Ivo started stand-up in 2009 at the age of 18 and eight months later became the youngest winner of the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny award for new acts at the Edinburgh Edge. Since graduating from Oxford in 2012, he has been a fixture at the British circuit’s clubs, theatres, podcasts and panel shows, with his awkward charm and sly, confident wit that has proved a hit with audiences of all ages – and led to appear on several shows including Have I Got News For You, Live at the Apollo, Mock The Week, Hypothetical, Live from the BBC, Fighting Talk and Off Menu Live At The Doubletree. In addition to runs in Melbourne, Sydney, Montreal and Los Angeles, Ivo’s has had six sold-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and Soho Theatre, culminating in a 2019 nomination for Best Show for The Game of Life.
Book tickets here.